Senator Ruben Gallego (D-AZ) joined the rest of the Democrats in skipping a Wednesday on the origins of the COVID-19 pandemic — but he also took it a step further, walking by while the hearing was going on and appearing to mock it.
Not one of the Democrats on the Senate Homeland Security &amp; Governmental Affairs Committee — to include Gallego — attended the hearing, where CIA whistleblower James Erdman III testified that Dr. Anthony Fauci had intentionally worked to cover up information regarding the pandemic&#8217;s origins.
But while most Democrats on the committee stayed away from the hearing entirely, Fox News Congressional Correspondent Bill Melugin reported that Gallego — accompanied by at least one staffer — walked by while the hearing was still ongoing.
&#8220;Senator Ruben Gallego (D-AZ), who is on this committee, just walked by the hearing room and saw all the media cameras and said something along the lines of, &#8216;Wow, what’s going on here?&#8217; A staffer walking with him replied &#8216;I don’t know.&#8217; Unclear if they were trolling or not,&#8221; Melugin said in an <a href="https://x.com/BillMelugin_/status/2054574539611205713">X post</a>.
He later relayed the story to Fox News host Harris Faulkner, saying, &#8220;Senator Ruben Gallego, Democrat from Arizona, actually walked by us about 15 minutes ago. He saw the media cameras here, and we couldn’t tell if he was joking or trolling or not, but he said, &#8216;Hey, what’s going on here?&#8217; And his staffer said, &#8216;I don’t know,&#8217; and they walked past us. He is on that committee. He’s not in the room.&#8221;
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
Fox’s Bill Melugin just exposed the stunning no-show by Senate Democrats at the CIA whistleblower hearing on Covid.
Not a SINGLE Democrat was in the room — even though several sit on the Homeland Security Committee.
MELUGIN: “There are no Senate Democrats inside of that hearing… <a href="https://t.co/dERE0QpHWY">pic.twitter.com/dERE0QpHWY</a>
— Overton (@overton_news) <a href="https://twitter.com/overton_news/status/2054587401851343065?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">May 13, 2026</a></blockquote>
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Gallego has been under increased scrutiny of late because of his close ties to disgraced former Rep. Eric Swalwell (D-CA) — who resigned after several accusations of sexual misconduct, harassment, and even rape — and has claimed that the former California congressman had succeeded in hiding his &#8220;double life&#8221; even when the two were roommates.
At the hearing Gallego and the other Democrats missed, Erdman laid out the complex web of experts — most of whom were previously linked to Fauci — who had worked to control what information was eventually revealed to the American people.
Senator Ron Johnson (R-WI) called out the federal agencies that had a part in handling the information, saying they had essentially given &#8220;the big middle finger&#8221; to the American people by not being more transparent at the time.
<iframe loading="lazy" title="COVID whistleblower blows lid off Fauci coverup, ‘middle finger’ to Americans" width="500" height="281" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/9gbBySuT4xs?feature=oembed" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share" referrerpolicy="strict-origin-when-cross-origin" allowfullscreen></iframe>

Ruben Gallego

Swalwell’s Best Buddy Didn’t Just Skip The COVID Hearing, He’s Accused Of Mocking It

Swalwell's Best Buddy Didn't Just Skip The COVID Hearing, He Mocked It

Anthony Fauci

COVID-19

Democrats

Eric Swalwell

Media

Politics

Senator Ron Johnson (R-WI) accused federal agencies of giving Americans &#8220;the big middle finger&#8221; in refusing to come forward with information concerning the origins of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Johnson and other Republicans questioned a CIA whistleblower during a Wednesday hearing, who claimed in his opening statement that Dr. Anthony Fauci&#8217;s role in the COVID cover-up &#8220;was intentional.&#8221; Not a single Democrat attended the hearing.
James Erdman III appeared before the Senate Homeland Security &amp; Governmental Affairs Committee on Wednesday morning to testify on what the federal government did to hide information from the public on the origins of the COVID-19 pandemic.
WATCH: 
<iframe loading="lazy" title="COVID whistleblower blows lid off Fauci coverup, ‘middle finger’ to Americans" width="500" height="281" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/9gbBySuT4xs?feature=oembed" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share" referrerpolicy="strict-origin-when-cross-origin" allowfullscreen></iframe>
&#8220;Public health policy would be very different had the American public been made aware that a virus from a lab in China was going to serve as the foundation for an emergency-use authorization mRNA products being mandated by the former administration,&#8221; Erdman began, adding, &#8220;Dr. Fauci&#8217;s role in the cover-up was intentional.&#8221;
No Democrats showed up for the hearing on the CIA whistleblower&#8217;s revelations.
Erdman went on to describe how Fauci — who served as former President Joe Biden&#8217;s top COVID adviser — had been a part of the process at every level.
&#8220;Dr. Fauci influenced the analytical process and findings by leveraging his position to ensure that the IC (Intelligence Community) consulted with a conflicted list of curated subject-matter experts, public health officials, and scientists,&#8221; Erdman explained, arguing that Fauci&#8217;s influence controlled which sources of information were accepted as reliable — and by extension, controlled what information the public would ultimately see.
&#8220;This included some of the authors of the paper &#8216;The Proximal Origin of SARS-COV2&#8217; and other public health experts who have been in his orbit for the last 20-plus years,&#8221; he said.
Erdman went on to argue that Fauci operated almost entirely without &#8220;oversight&#8221; that might have held him accountable.
&#8220;There was no oversight monitoring how this web of relationships influenced research, policy, and public health any holistic way,&#8221; he said, adding that some of those involved had worked with Fauci years earlier to rewrite the accepted definition of &#8220;gain-of-function&#8221; research in order to open doors — and gain access to funding — to more dangerous research.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
BOMBSHELL: Here is the entire opening statement from CIA whistleblower James Erdman lll. He testifies that Dr. Fauci&#8217;s role in the COVID cover-up was INTENTIONAL.
He stacked the intelligence community&#8217;s analysis with conflicted scientists funded by NIAID who pushed the natural… <a href="https://t.co/S1ZP9FlZGl">pic.twitter.com/S1ZP9FlZGl</a>
— Andrew Kolvet (@AndrewKolvet) <a href="https://twitter.com/AndrewKolvet/status/2054572379200725050?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">May 13, 2026</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

Not A Single Democrat Showed Up At COVID Hearing

COVID-19 Vaccine

Lockdowns

Pandemic

The United States Department of Justice announced on Tuesday that Dr. David Morens, once a top aide to Dr. Anthony Fauci, was indicted for his role in hiding data on the origins of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Morens, according to a <a href="https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/former-senior-niaid-official-indicted-concealing-federal-records-during-covid-19-pandemic-0">press release</a> from the DOJ, was &#8220;charged with conspiracy against the United States; destruction, alteration, or falsification of records in federal investigations; concealment, removal, or mutilation of records; and aiding and abetting.&#8221;
Morens served as a top adviser in the NIAID’s (National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases) Office of the Director for 16 years, from 2006-2022 — where Fauci served as the director from 1984-2022.
<a href="https://www.dailywire.com/show/fauci-unmasked">RELATED: FAUCI UNMASKED</a>
Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche issued a statement on the indictment, saying, &#8220;These allegations represent a profound abuse of trust at a time when the American people needed it most — during the height of a global pandemic. As alleged in the indictment, Dr. Morens and his co-conspirators deliberately concealed information and falsified records in an effort to suppress alternative theories regarding the origins of COVID-19. Government officials have a solemn duty to provide honest, well-grounded facts and advice in service of the public interest — not to advance their own personal or ideological agendas.&#8221;
&#8220;Circumventing records protocols with the intention of avoiding transparency is something that will not be tolerated by this FBI,&#8221; FBI Director Kash Patel added in a separate statement. &#8220;Not only did Morens allegedly engage in the illegal obfuscation of his communications, but he received kickbacks for doing so. If you have engaged in activity conspiring against the United States, we will not stop until you face justice.&#8221;
At NIAID, much of the information the so-called &#8220;experts&#8221; had was funneled through channels that Morens either had access to or influence over, and the indictment alleges that he used that position to manipulate the data that eventually became public knowledge with regard to COVID-19 and its origins. Morens allegedly accomplished this in part by steering grant funding away from research that might support theories that strayed from the accepted narrative. He and others involved also allegedly conspired in writing to <a href="https://nypost.com/2024/05/22/us-news/explosive-emails-show-top-nih-adviser-deleted-records-used-secret-back-channels-to-help-fauci-ecohealth-evade-covid-transparency/">hide their efforts</a> to manipulate public data lest someone use the Freedom of Information Act to obtain access to it in the future.
&#8220;[I] learned from our foia [sic] lady here how to make emails disappear after I am foia’d [sic] but before the search starts,” Morens explained in a Feb. 24, 2021, email. &#8220;Plus I deleted most of those earlier emails after sending them to gmail [sic].&#8221;
“[T]here is no worry about FOIAs. I can either send stuff to Tony on his private gmail [sic], or hand it to him at work or at his house,” Morens wrote in April of 2021. “He is too smart to let colleagues send him stuff that could cause trouble.&#8221;
In another email sent the same year, he advised the addressees to only send such communications directly to his Gmail account to avoid the extra hassle of forwarding and deleting them from his official accounts.
Even in June of 2020, Morens was eyeing the possibility that certain communications could potentially raise red flags. &#8220;We are all smart enough to know to never have smoking guns, and if we did we wouldn’t put them in emails and if we found them we’d delete them,&#8221; he wrote at the time.<iframe style="aspect-ratio: 9/16; max-width: 220px; display: flex; justify-content: center; width: 100%; margin: 20px auto 5px; border: 0;" src="https://player.mux.com/006T3IDuGH7D01ET64iu024a5HPHryXvn2g?metadata-video-content-type=short&amp;metadata-video-id=8cfcc1ad-ba0c-4820-a397-31cc59dfbbf9&amp;metadata-video-stream-type=on-demand&amp;metadata-video-title=DOJ%20charges%20Fauci%20adviser%20as%20email%20trail%20could%20reopen%20COVID%20origin%20debate&amp;poster=https%3A%2F%2Fdailywireplus-v2.imgix.net%2Fimages%2Fshorts%2F87c15e82-bded-489c-b40e-b660277b9b46.jpg&amp;autoplay=false&amp;accent-color=%23DB3D3B&amp;primary-color=%23ffffff&amp;secondary-color=%23000000" allowfullscreen="allowfullscreen"></iframe>
&nbsp;
According to the DOJ press release, Morens could face up to five years in prison for the charge of conspiracy against the United States — as well as up to 20 years on each count of destruction, alteration, or falsification of records in federal investigations. He could also face up to three years for each count of concealment, removal, or mutilation of records. His sentence, should he be convicted, would be determined by a federal judge following consultation of U.S. Sentencing Guidelines.
The case was investigated by the FBI in conjunction with the Office of the Inspector General for the Department of Health and Human Services, and will be prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorneys Joseph R. Baldwin and Bijon A. Mostoufi for the District of Maryland.

fauci_adviser

Fauci Adviser Bragged About Making COVID Emails ‘Disappear.’ The DOJ Just Indicted Him.

Top Fauci Adviser Indicted As 'Co-Conspirator' In Scuttling COVID Origins Data

Crime

Department of Justice

U.S.

WASHINGTON—A civil rights group this week reached a sweeping settlement with the federal government, which will stop agencies from pressuring social media companies to remove or suppress lawful speech.
The New Civil Liberties Alliance announced Tuesday that it had reached a consent decree on behalf of its clients in the case Missouri v. Biden, a long-running case in which the plaintiffs alleged the Biden administration worked with big tech platforms to censor users with opinions it viewed as disagreeable — largely conservatives who deviated from the accepted orthodoxy on the COVID-19 pandemic.
Under the consent decree, federal entities, including the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, and the Office of the Surgeon General, are prohibited from threatening or coercing platforms such as Facebook, Instagram, X, LinkedIn, and YouTube over content moderation decisions. The agreement also bars officials from directing or vetoing those decisions. 
The settlement is awaiting final approval from U.S. District Judge Terry Doughty. 
The case centers on claims that federal officials coordinated with social media companies to suppress viewpoints that conflicted with government messaging on COVID-19 and other politically sensitive topics. Plaintiffs, including Dr. Aaron Kheriaty and activist Jill Hines, argued that such actions amounted to unconstitutional government censorship carried out through private intermediaries.
NCLA attorneys said discovery in the case revealed what they described as a broad effort spanning multiple agencies and senior officials.
 “This case began with a suspicion that blossomed into fact,” said John Vecchione, a senior litigation counsel with the group. “Freedom of speech has been powerfully preserved by our clients.”
The legal fight has taken multiple turns over the past several years. <a href="https://www.scotusblog.com/2024/06/justices-side-with-biden-over-governments-influence-on-social-media-content-moderation/">In 2024</a>, the Supreme Court vacated a lower court injunction that had restricted government contacts with social media companies, ruling that the plaintiffs lacked standing at that stage of the case. Despite that setback, the lawsuit continued in district court, ultimately leading to the current agreement.
The settlement also reflects a broader policy shift under the Trump administration, which had previously condemned federal involvement in content moderation. In an early executive order, President Donald Trump criticized what he described as government infringement on Americans’ speech rights. As part of the agreement, the administration acknowledges that labeling speech as “misinformation,” “disinformation,” or “malinformation” does not remove First Amendment protections.
NCLA President Mark Chenoweth said the outcome reinforces a core constitutional principle.
“Federal officials may police the line between lawful and unlawful speech,” Chenoweth said, “but they have no role in deciding if speech is true or false.” The plaintiffs are granted authority to enforce the consent decree if violations occur, giving the agreement ongoing legal weight beyond the initial ruling.
The settlement marks one of the most significant legal developments to date in the ongoing debate over the government’s role in moderating online speech, an issue that has drawn increasing scrutiny from courts, lawmakers, and the public as social media platforms have become central to political discourse.
NCLA said related lawsuits targeting federal agencies and officials over similar allegations remain ongoing.

President Biden Holds NATO Summit News Conference As Questions Surround His Candidacy

Biden’s Social Media Censorship Campaign Is Finally Dead

Biden Administration

Free Speech

Surgeon General

There&#8217;s a palpable frustration out there in American politics.
It’s clearly rooted in some ugly and unpleasant realities: the reality that many of our major institutions blew up their credibility on COVID-19, BLM, and Russiagate; the reality that we don&#8217;t really have any idea how AI is going to reshape the job market; the reality that a ton of people in the political class have no scruples and are totally willing to engage in open corruption.
That frustration is turning into something else before our eyes in this country.
And that thing is nihilism.
That nihilism is rooted in a gigantic lie. A truly gigantic lie that tries to make us believe that all of our problems in the United States are intractable, that individual problems that you may have or I may have in the United States are the result of an evil system, often led by cohesive groups of conspiratorial elites, that you cannot succeed unless you pierce this supposed matrix, and all of those who call for individual responsibility and dutiful decency are actually part of this evil matrix. 
This thinking is not solution-making. It is thought-preventing. It is success-preventing. It&#8217;s a recipe for personal and national disaster, and the result is an increasingly incoherent and unhinged politics and an entire generation of young men and women who go looking for meaning in all the wrong places and on the very fringes, sometimes turning to violence.
On Monday, Peter Whoriskey <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2026/02/08/nihilistic-violence-emerges/">wrote</a> in The Washington Post:
<blockquote>Amid a wave of high-profile killings and political violence in the United States, investigators have been confounded regularly by the absence of a recognizable agenda. The assailants in several cases — shootings, a bombing, a planned drone attack — resisted familiar labels and categories. They were not Democrat or Republican, or Islamist militant, or antifa or white supremacist.
They were something new. In their manifestos, these attackers declared their contempt for humanity and a desire to see the collapse of civilization. Law enforcement officers and federal prosecutors have begun to describe these attacks as a contemporary strain of nihilism, an online revival of the philosophical stance that arose in the 19th century to deny the existence of moral truths and meaning in the universe.</blockquote>
This is not new. Societies that experienced major dislocations are often the breeding ground for nihilism and violence. That&#8217;s been true going all the way back to Dostoyevsky&#8217;s “Notes from the Underground,” which he wrote in 1864. But if you reread “Notes from the Underground,” Dostoevsky goes further.
He writes:
<blockquote>I, for instance, would not be in the least surprised if all of a sudden, à propos of nothing, in the midst of general prosperity a gentleman with an ignoble, or rather with a reactionary and ironical, countenance were to arise and, putting his arms akimbo, say to us all: “I say, gentleman, hadn’t we better kick over the whole show and scatter rationalism to the winds, simply to send these logarithms to the devil, and to enable us to live once more at our own sweet foolish will!” That again would not matter, but what is annoying is that he would be sure to find followers—such is the nature of man. And all that for the most foolish reason, which, one would think, was hardly worth mentioning: that is, that man everywhere and at all times, whoever he may be, has preferred to act as he chose and not in the least as his reason and advantage dictated.
One’s own free unfettered choice, one’s own caprice, however wild it may be, one’s own fancy worked up at times to frenzy—is that very “most advantageous advantage” which we have overlooked, which comes under no classification and against which all systems and theories are continually being shattered to atoms. And how do these wiseacres know that man wants a normal, a virtuous choice? What has made them conceive that man must want a rationally advantageous choice? What man wants is simply independent choice, whatever that independence may cost and wherever it may lead. And choice, of course, the devil only knows what choice. </blockquote>
In other words, convince people that they don&#8217;t have any choices in life and what you are likely to get is a nihilistic retreat into barbarism, specifically because people want to lash out at their supposed lack of choice.
You&#8217;ve heard me rail against what I&#8217;ve called the conspiracy theory of society. That&#8217;s the idea that everything in life is controlled by systems you can&#8217;t quite identify, and that your problems are solvable only through violence or through some sort of pseudo revolution.
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Philosopher Karl Popper explained this again back in the mid-20th century. He said, “The &#8216;conspiracy theory of society&#8217; is a typical result of a secularization of a religious superstition. The belief in the Homeric gods whose conspiracies explain the history of the Trojan War is gone. The gods are abandoned. But their place is filled by powerful men or groups &#8211; sinister pressure groups whose wickedness is responsible for all the evils we suffer from &#8211; such as the Learned Elders of Zion, or the monopolists, or the capitalists, or the imperialists.”
None of this is new.
But what we are experiencing right now in the United States is dangerous and stupid. Of course, there are conspiracies out there, but conspiracies generally have specific people involved and evidence of their involvement. What has been effectuated is the conspiracy theory of society that everything in your life is out of your control, and there is a group of manipulative elites who are getting together behind closed doors to figure out how to screw you.
That is something different. And that conspiracy theory of society is finding unbelievably fertile ground right now. And there are a lot of people who are promoting it for their own pure grift and greed.
They are doing it because of the con.
It turns out that this modern wave of nihilism is not entirely organic. It is fomented by influencers and politicians who commit ideological arson so that they can pretend to be firefighters, people who manipulate their audiences into believing that their problems are unfixable unless they hand over more power and control to precisely those same influencers and politicians. 
After all, influencers can get really, really rich off the nihilism of crowds. Politicians can foment the change they seek by channeling nihilistic energy, at least temporarily, until they&#8217;re eaten by the movement that they actually foster.
The pool right now is really, really warm for tons of influencers and politicians who wish to promote the idea that society is rigged, and that if you follow their particularly crappy advice and give them attention and therefore cash, you will somehow break the matrix and your life will become better.
It&#8217;s a lie. 
We live in a time that is rife with the con.

The Con

A Time Rife With The Con

Ben Shapiro

Opinion

Russiagate

Violence

Washington Post

Illinois just gained another data point for its reputation for public corruption. New revelations found that nearly 400 state employees improperly obtained federal Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) loans intended to keep small businesses afloat during the pandemic.
PPP was created as part of the CARES Act to provide federally backed, forgivable loans to small businesses during the COVID-19 pandemic. It was signed into law on March 27, 2020.
According to the Illinois Office of the Executive Inspector General, investigators found “reasonable cause” in 378 PPP-fraud cases involving state workers through June 2025 — about three-quarters of all cases reviewed, the <a href="https://www.chicagotribune.com/2025/12/29/ppp-loan-fraud-illinois-cook-county/?lctg=B4845491D5F64499A4E4B513EB&amp;utm">Chicago Tribune</a> reported. More than 200 employees resigned or were fired, and some have been referred for criminal prosecution. Workers across major agencies — including Human Services, Corrections, and Children and Family Services — collectively received over $2.8 million in fraudulent loans, often using fabricated businesses or false income claims.
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The inspector general sharply condemned the conduct, stressing that public employees are expected to protect — not exploit — taxpayer funds. One state worker claimed she misunderstood the loan as debt consolidation; another admitted paying a stranger to fabricate a fake business application. The Illinois Attorney General’s office has secured guilty pleas in several cases, typically resulting in probation, restitution, or community service — including a Human Services employee who obtained $49,000 for a nonexistent catering company.
The problem extended beyond the state government. Cook County watchdogs documented 65 PPP-related findings, most resulting in resignations or firings. The Cook County sheriff’s office reviewed 163 cases, sustaining violations against 62 employees. Chicago’s inspector general initially flagged nearly 1,000 potentially problematic loans involving city staff and has so far found nine substantiated cases, with more investigations ongoing.
These scandals unfolded against a national backdrop of widespread PPP fraud, with federal watchdogs estimating tens of billions lost and the Department of Justice charging thousands of defendants while seizing over $1.4 billion in stolen relief funds.
Illinois’ recurring ethical failures have measurable social costs. The Archbridge Institute’s Social Mobility Index ranked Illinois 40th in the nation — and the worst in the Midwest — partly due to persistent perceptions of corruption, including both illegal bribery and “legal” pay-to-play politics through campaign money and influence-trading.
“The perception of the state’s corruption is one factor that dragged it down,” Illinois Policy <a href="https://www.illinoispolicy.org/illinois-political-corruption-keeps-people-down/">reported</a>. “The social mobility index measures perceptions of corruption using the 2018 <a href="https://greasethewheels.org/cpi/">Corruption in America Survey</a>, which ranks Illinois among the most corrupt states in the country in both legal and illegal corruption – legal corruption describing a culture of pay-to-play in the form of campaign contributions made to or endorsements of a particular politician in exchange for favors or influence.”
Even as leaders stress that most public employees act honorably, the breadth of PPP fraud involving government workers reinforces Illinois’ stubborn image as one of America’s most corruption-ridden states — an image that, evidence suggests, drags down both governance and the state’s broader prospects for upward mobility.

US-POLITICS-CRIME-TROOPS-CHICAGO

Hundreds Of Illinois Public Workers Implicated In Pandemic Fraud

Corruption

Illinois

Paycheck Protection Program (PPP)

Nearly two-thirds of Americans want COVID-era federal programs to come to an end, as Democrats demand that any government funding bill include an extension of health care subsidies that were introduced during the COVID-19 pandemic, according to a new <a href="https://www.scribd.com/document/929542118/Polling-on-ACA-Enhanced-Subsidies-Top-Line-docx?secret_password=sN1T3iUcGZSAHeyfI3eD">poll</a>.
Sixty-one percent of Americans said that the federal government should allow COVID-era subsidies to end, according to a poll conducted last week by the Republican-aligned firm OnMessage Public Strategies, Inc., that was shared with The Daily Wire.
Those surveyed were asked whether “the federal government should allow programs that were designed deliberately to address the problems created by the COVID-19 pandemic to sunset, and put those funds to more pressing issues facing Americans.&#8221; Thirty-nine percent of those surveyed strongly agreed with the statement, and 22% somewhat agreed, while only 15% strongly disagreed, and another 15% somewhat disagreed, also wanting to keep the COVID-19 Affordable Care Act subsidies alive.
The poll surveyed 1,000 Americans. Thirty-eight percent of those polled identified as Republicans, and 33% of the participants identified as Democrats. Another 26% of those surveyed identified as independent.
Affordable Care Act subsidies have been a major part of the ongoing government shutdown negotiations on Capitol Hill. Under former President Joe Biden&#8217;s Inflation Reduction Act, those health care subsidies, that were meant to address issues during COVID, were extended through the end of this year. However, Democrats want the subsidies made permanent, arguing that insurance premiums would skyrocket and low-income Americans would be forced to drop their coverage. The Congressional Budget Office <a href="https://www.politico.com/newsletters/politico-pulse/2025/10/02/breaking-down-the-aca-subsidy-fight-00590901">estimated</a> that by 2034, four million people who would have had insurance will be uninsured if the subsidies are not extended.
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The OnMessage poll found drastically different results than a similar poll conducted by the health policy organization KFF last week. A KFF survey published on October 3 found that 78% of Americans want Congress to extend the Obamacare subsidies, including 59% of Republicans. The KFF <a href="https://www.kff.org/public-opinion/despite-budget-concerns-three-quarters-of-public-say-congress-should-extend-the-enhanced-aca-tax-credits-set-to-expire-next-year-including-most-republicans-and-maga-supporters/">poll</a> also found that ending the subsidies could be problematic for Republicans in next year&#8217;s midterm elections.
Republican leaders, who have opposed Obamacare for years, argue that the subsidies debate should be held closer to the end of the year, after the government has been funded. Republicans, led by President Donald Trump, are also seeking additional ways to reduce government spending. An analysis from the Congressional Budget Office and the Joint Committee on Taxation released last month estimated that a permanent extension of the Obamacare COVID subsidies would increase the federal deficit by $349.8 billion over the next decade, The Hill <a href="https://thehill.com/homenews/house/5540430-mike-johnson-shutdown-obamacare-subsidies/">reported</a>.
Both House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) and Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-SD) <a href="https://thehill.com/policy/healthcare/5538167-congress-aca-tax-credit-increase/">said</a> that discussions over Obamacare subsidies cannot happen while the government remains shut down, urging their Democratic colleagues to focus on agreeing to a temporary funding bill before larger funding debates can be held.
“We have effectively three months to negotiate. In the White House and in the halls of Congress, that’s like an eternity,” Johnson <a href="https://thehill.com/homenews/house/5540430-mike-johnson-shutdown-obamacare-subsidies/">said</a> on Monday.
Trump said on Monday that he&#8217;s open to negotiating with Democrats on the health care subsidies, but added that they must reopen the government before those negotiations take place.
&#8220;I am happy to work with the Democrats on their Failed Healthcare Policies, or anything else, but first they must allow our Government to re-open. In fact, they should open our Government tonight!&#8221; Trump <a href="https://truthsocial.com/@realDonaldTrump/posts/115329671584864920">wrote</a> on Truth Social on Monday evening.
The Senate <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/live-updates-countdown-to-government-shutdown?contentProgram=LIVE%20UPDATES%3A%20Another%20Failed%20Vote%3A%20Shutdown%20Continues&amp;contentType=Post&amp;elementPosition=2&amp;location=Home%20Tab&amp;row=0&amp;rowType=Home%20Featured%20Carousel">failed</a> to pass a funding bill again on Monday night, with the vast majority of Democrats rejecting the Republicans&#8217; continuing resolution.

Chuck Schumer

Most Americans Don’t Want COVID Programs To Continue As Dems Push For Extension In Shutdown Fight

Congress

Donald Trump

Government Shutdown

Health Care

Obamacare

Poll

Republicans

Washington D.C.

President Donald Trump got a laugh from the crowd gathered in the Oval Office on Tuesday when he cracked a COVID-related joke at the expense of Health &amp; Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.
Trump and the others were in the middle of his press conference — announcing a massive reduction in many popular drugs thanks to a commitment from pharmaceutical giant Pfizer to invest $70 billion in domestic drug manufacturing — when Kennedy was unfortunate enough to sneeze.
WATCH:
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
Bobby Kennedy: 🤧**SNEEZES**🤧 
TRUMP: God bless you, Bobby. I hope I didn&#8217;t just catch COVID just there.. GIVE ME A PAXLOVID IMMEDIATELY!&#8221; <a href="https://t.co/8sm0n9hLBd">pic.twitter.com/8sm0n9hLBd</a>
— Townhall.com (@townhallcom) <a href="https://twitter.com/townhallcom/status/1973066245093097577?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">September 30, 2025</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
Trump was in the middle of a thought about his plans to make additional efforts down the road to reduce prices even more for American families — but when Kennedy shielded his face with his elbow and sneezed, he responded immediately. Turning toward Kennedy, he said without missing a beat, “God bless you, Bobby.”
”I hope I didn&#8217;t just catch COVID just there,” he added after a brief pause as laughter began to erupt around the room. “Do you have a Paxlovid? Paxlovid? GIVE ME A PAXLOVID, IMMEDIATELY!”
As The Daily Wire reported previously, the new TrumpRX website will allow Americans to purchase drugs directly from the government rather than going through insurance. Virtually all drugs will be discounted on TrumpRX, the White House said.
<a href="https://get.dailywire.com/subscribe/plus/?utm_campaign=fall40&amp;utm_content=fallsale&amp;utm_medium=website&amp;utm_source=editorial">Get 40% off new DailyWire+ annual memberships with code FALL40 at checkout</a>
Pfizer stepped up with a $70 billion investment, signaling a shift toward making more drugs in the United States instead of continuing to rely on imports from other nations — some of which are considered adversaries. The Trump administration has identified that reliance as a national security issue.
Trump also suggested that his administration would be working with other drug companies in addition to Pfizer in an effort to increase the number of drugs that would be made available at discounted rates.

President Trump Delivers An Announcement From The Oval Office

Trump Has Oval Office Crowd Rolling After Off-The-Cuff COVID Crack

Executive

Robert F. Kennedy Jr.

Multiple people are dead after what appears to be an anti-ICE attack in Dallas, red state homeowners are suing over a COVID-era bailout program, and Senate Democrats stall a funding bill that would keep the lights on in Washington.
It’s Thursday, September 25, 2025, and this is the news you need to know to start your day.
Morning Wire is available on video! You can watch today’s episode here:
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<h2 style="text-align: center;">ICE Targeted In Dallas</h2>
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Topline: A shooter opened fire at an ICE facility in Dallas on Wednesday, killing multiple immigrant detainees.
The gunman shot three detainees. Two of them died from their wounds. The shooter then turned the gun on himself and died at the scene.
Photos of the aftermath of the attack showed that bullets struck windows and walls inside the facility, but no law enforcement personnel were injured.
Federal law enforcement sources tell The Daily Wire that authorities believe that the shooter was trying to shoot at ICE officers when he aimed at an unmarked van. That van was holding illegal immigrant detainees who were being walked in for processing.
The shooter: Reports indicate the alleged shooter was 29-year-old Joshua Jahn. While not much is known about his history, authorities say he did give a glimpse into his motive after leaving shell casings behind, one engraved with the words “ANTI-ICE.” The FBI is investigating the targeted shooting, and the agency’s director, Kash Patel, says the casings prove that there was “an ideological motive” behind this attack.
Step back: The fatal shooting comes amid an uptick in left-wing violence targeting law enforcement and conservatives. Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) spoke about that during a press conference on Wednesday, where he called for his left-leaning colleagues in Congress to stop fanning the flames of the violence with their rhetoric.
“To every politician who is using rhetoric demonizing ICE and demonizing CBP, stop. To every politician demanding that ICE agents be doxxed and calling for people to go after their families, stop,” said Cruz. “This has very real consequences. Look, in America, we disagree. That&#8217;s fine. That&#8217;s the democratic process. But your political opponents are not Nazis. We need to learn to work together without demonizing each other, without attacking each other.”
<h2 style="text-align: center;">Biden Housing Bailout Sparks Racial Backlash</h2>
<img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="alignnone size-medium wp-image-976677" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/09/Race-Based-Bailout-300x169.jpg" alt="" width="300" height="169" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/09/Race-Based-Bailout-300x169.jpg 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/09/Race-Based-Bailout-1024x576.jpg 1024w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/09/Race-Based-Bailout-768x432.jpg 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/09/Race-Based-Bailout-1536x864.jpg 1536w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/09/Race-Based-Bailout.jpg 1920w" sizes=" (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px" />
Topline: A $10 billion coronavirus-era housing bailout paid Americans&#8217; mortgages and even their HOA dues. But 40% of the funds went to black Americans, due to the program including explicit racial preferences.
Now, some white residents are suing their states, saying the government illegally withheld assistance from them based on their race.
The significance: This is one of the largest race-based government wealth transfers in history. And it happened because it came during the COVID pandemic, when the United States was hemorrhaging billions of dollars.
The program is called the <a href="https://home.treasury.gov/policy-issues/coronavirus/assistance-for-state-local-and-tribal-governments/homeowner-assistance-fund">Homeowner Assistance </a><a href="https://www.ncsha.org/homeowner-assistance-fund/">Fund</a>, and it provided people up to $50,000 to pay housing-related bills. It was passed by Congress and required about half the money to go to homeowners at or below the median income, while the remainder could be allocated to wealthier individuals, with priority given to “socially disadvantaged” homeowners.
“Socially disadvantaged?” Congress didn’t define it, and the program was run separately by each state, which received money after submitting a plan to the federal government. But the Biden administration heavily suggested a definition for the states to include in their plans: “those who have been subjected to racial or ethnic prejudice or cultural bias.”
The “presumption,” the administration said, is that “the following individuals are socially disadvantaged: Black Americans, Hispanic Americans, Native Americans, and Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders.”
How it played out: In Alabama, 85% of the funds went to black residents. In Georgia, it was 82%. That’s surprising because, just based on the fact that half the money was supposed to be doled out based on income, you should have seen more people of other races. Only about half of Georgians below the median income are black. 
Plaintiffs in a lawsuit say that’s because Georgia deliberately ensured that white people didn’t even know it existed. The state’s plan included texting residents to inform them about this opportunity for $50,000 – but only residents of counties with high minority populations.
The Biden administration was never clear about the criteria, but many states used the definition provided by the Biden administration. Now, Georgia, Missouri, and Oklahoma are being sued by residents for going along with it, despite politicians in those states claiming to oppose DEI.
The lawsuits: In Missouri, the program was administered by a housing commission, where the governor, lieutenant governor, and attorney general serve as commissioners. Missouri partnered with the Black Chamber of Commerce to advertise the program, and 44% of the money went to blacks, who make up less than 12% of the population. A spokeswoman for Missouri Republican Governor Mike Kehoe declined to comment on the ongoing litigation but called him “a strong advocate for removing DEI.”
In Oklahoma, plaintiffs include a massage therapist who was forced out of a job by COVID policies and her disabled-veteran husband. They point out that the Oklahoma Housing Finance Agency said prominently on its website that “African American, Hispanic/Latino, Native American, [and] LGBTQ+” residents would get preference.
<h2 style="text-align: center;">Budget Deadline Looms Over Congress</h2>
<img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="alignnone size-medium wp-image-976675" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/09/Budget-Battle-Rages-300x169.jpg" alt="" width="300" height="169" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/09/Budget-Battle-Rages-300x169.jpg 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/09/Budget-Battle-Rages-1024x576.jpg 1024w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/09/Budget-Battle-Rages-768x432.jpg 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/09/Budget-Battle-Rages-1536x864.jpg 1536w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/09/Budget-Battle-Rages.jpg 1920w" sizes=" (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px" />
Topline: President Donald Trump canceled a meeting with Democratic congressional leaders this week to discuss government funding. The president blasted Democrats’ demands as “unserious and ridiculous” as government funding is set to expire at the end of the month.
The deadline to avert a partial government shutdown is September 30, giving lawmakers less than a week. House Republicans have already passed a clean, 7-week funding extension. However, the bill is currently stalled in the Senate. Even though the GOP holds the majority, Republicans need 60 votes, which means they need some Democrat support.
Trump had planned to meet this week with Democratic leaders – Sen. Chuck Schumer and Congressman Hakeem Jeffries – but scrapped the meeting over the Democrats’ demands. The president doubled down on Wednesday, writing on Truth Social that Democratic demands include free healthcare for illegal aliens, half a billion dollars for “Radical Left News Outlets,” leaving “DEAD PEOPLE on Medicaid and Social Security rolls,” and “men playing in women’s sports.” 
What Democrats are saying: Democrats say they won’t back down. Schumer and Jeffries have been on a media blitz this week following the meeting&#8217;s collapse. The main line of attack from Democrats is centered on healthcare.
“Republicans have engaged in an unprecedented assault on the healthcare of the American people throughout this year. The largest cut to Medicaid in American history. Millions of people are going to lose coverage because of what Republicans have done,” said Jeffries during an appearance on <a href="https://youtu.be/CLm2OIhjkUo?t=228">MSNBC</a>.
State of play: According to some reports, Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-SD) and House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) urged Trump to cancel the meeting. Congressional Republicans thought that Democrats were unserious and that meeting with them would only erode Republicans’ leverage.
Johnson sent the House into recess after it passed its 7-week extension, and he said he won’t recall lawmakers back to DC until after the September 30 deadline. If Democrats don’t agree to a clean bill, there will be a fight over who takes the blame for the shutdown.
&nbsp;

MRN 9.25.25 Thu Thumbnail V4

Morning Brief: Dallas ICE Attack, Housing Bailout Sparks Racial Lawsuits & D.C.’s Budget Standoff

Dallas

Hakeem Jeffries

Immigration and Customs Enforcement

John Thune

Mike Johnson

Morning Wire

Ted Cruz

Texas

Newly-released emails suggest that Dr. Anthony Fauci went out of his way to hide information during the COVID-19 pandemic — and then lied about doing so when questioned about it by members of Congress.
Senator Rand Paul (R-KY) shared screenshots of two separate emails, both of which contained information that Fauci apparently did not want to see the light of day — in both cases, Fauci had clearly instructed the recipient to &#8220;delete&#8221; the message once it had been read. Paul also shared a copy of a letter addressed to Fauci on September 9, referencing the emails in conjunction with his prior testimony — during which he claimed several times that he had not attempted to hide or delete any relevant information regarding the pandemic from Congress — and calling for him to testify again.
&#8220;Newly released emails show Fauci directed colleagues to &#8216;delete this after you read it&#8217; — dating back to Feb. 2020,&#8221; Paul wrote. &#8220;He denied it under oath. These documents are now public, and Fauci will finally testify before Chairman Rand Paul.&#8221;
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
🚨BREAKING: Newly released emails show Fauci directed colleagues to “delete this after you read it”—dating back to Feb. 2020.
He denied it under oath. These documents are now public, and Fauci will finally testify before Chairman Rand Paul. <a href="https://t.co/kHrUDjfRXI">pic.twitter.com/kHrUDjfRXI</a>
— Senator Rand Paul (@SenRandPaul) <a href="https://twitter.com/SenRandPaul/status/1965766261918630136?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">September 10, 2025</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
Paul included in the letter a list of documents that Fauci, 84, was to provide within two weeks, no later than 5 pm on September 23. In addition to emails, attachments, calls, texts, and voicemails, Paul requested all telephone numbers, messaging app usernames, and email addresses — whether government or private — that Fauci used between January 1, 2018, and January 1, 2023.
He followed the letter with additional X posts showing the emails in question.
&#8220;Freshly released emails expose another layer of the Fauci COVID Coverup. In April 2020, his staff flagged my post on NYC’s soaring death rate. Fauci’s reply? Call me &#8216;full of s**t,&#8217; spin the numbers, and order your staff to &#8216;delete this after you read it.&#8217; He knew the reckoning was eventually coming.&#8221;
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
The coverup began while the virus was barely on America’s radar. Just one day after the Feb. 1, 2020 Proximal Origins call, Fauci, Francis Collins, and Jeremy Farrar plotted how to “get ahead of the science and the narrative” under WHO.
Fauci ended with: “Please delete this… <a href="https://t.co/lAVuPB8mZJ">pic.twitter.com/lAVuPB8mZJ</a>
— Senator Rand Paul (@SenRandPaul) <a href="https://twitter.com/SenRandPaul/status/1965766267580580311?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">September 10, 2025</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
&#8220;The coverup began while the virus was barely on America’s radar,&#8221; Paul wrote on X. &#8220;Just one day after the Feb. 1, 2020 Proximal Origins call, Fauci, Francis Collins, and Jeremy Farrar plotted how to &#8216;get ahead of the science and the narrative&#8217; under WHO. Fauci ended with: &#8216;Please delete this after you read it.'&#8221;

Leading Health Officials Testify On Federal Government’s Response To Monkeypox Outbreak

‘Delete This After You Read It’: Fauci Ordered Staff To Cover Up Email Defending COVID Lockdowns

'Delete This After You Read It': Fauci Ordered Staff To Cover Up Email Defending COVID Lockdowns

Francis Collins

Rand Paul

President Donald Trump issued a Labor Day appeal for Pfizer to share its COVID-19 vaccine data with the CDC and the public immediately.
Trump said on Truth Social that Pfizer had shown him impressive numbers on its COVID vaccine, but that they had not made them publicly available. His call for transparency comes after the White House <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/white-house-fires-cdc-director-following-covid-vaccine-showdown">fired</a> CDC Director Susan Monarez last week following her clash with Health and Human Services Director Robert F. Kennedy Jr. over the approval of COVID vaccines. 
“It is very important that the Drug Companies justify the success of their various Covid Drugs. Many people think they are a miracle that saved Millions of lives. Others disagree! With CDC being ripped apart over this question, I want the answer, and I want it NOW,” Trump wrote. “I have been shown information from Pfizer, and others, that is extraordinary, but they never seem to show those results to the public. Why not??? They go off to the next &#8216;hunt&#8217; and let everyone rip themselves apart, including Bobby Kennedy Jr. and CDC, trying to figure out the success or failure of the Drug Companies Covid work.”
“They show me GREAT numbers and results, but they don’t seem to be showing them to many others,” Trump added. “I want them to show them NOW, to CDC and the public, and clear up this MESS, one way or the other!!! I hope OPERATION WARP SPEED was as ‘BRILLIANT’ as many say it was. If not, we all want to know about it, and why???”
During his first term, Trump launched &#8220;Operation Warp Speed&#8221; to fast-track the development and approval of COVID-19 vaccines. Under the Biden administration, mandates were introduced requiring vaccination for the military, healthcare workers at federally funded facilities, federal employees and contractors, and employees of large businesses. Federal courts later blocked some of these mandates, while others remained in effect.
After Monarez was fired last week, Kennedy appointed HHS Deputy Director Jim O’Neil as the acting director of the CDC. Monarez was terminated after she failed to commit to rescinding her approval for certain COVID-19 vaccine age groups. At least four senior CDC officials left in protest over Monarez’s firing. 
Those resignations came as the FDA rolled out new guidelines for the COVID vaccine, approving its use for those 65 and older and limiting approval for those between the ages of 5 and 64.
“The emergency use authorizations for Covid vaccines, once used to justify broad mandates on the general public during the Biden administration, are now rescinded,” Kennedy announced. “FDA has now issued marketing authorization for those at higher risk: Moderna (6+ months), Pfizer (5+), and Novavax (12+). These vaccines are available for all patients who choose them after consulting with their doctors.”

President Trump Attends MAHA Commission Event At White House

Trump Puts The Heat On Pfizer: Release COVID Vaccine Data To Public ‘NOW’

Health

Pfizer

The U.S. Senate confirmed President Donald Trump’s nominee to lead the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) on Tuesday.
Susan Monarez was the president’s second pick to head the agency after the White House pulled Dave Weldon’s nomination, which Weldon said was due to a lack of Senate support for his nomination. Monarez is the first CDC head to be confirmed by the Senate, a move necessitated under a 2023 law.
The Senate confirmed Monarez, who already heads the agency as acting director, in a 51 to 47 vote. Monarez now stands to head up an agency in the middle of an overhaul led by Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.
The Trump administration is reportedly <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/health/2025/04/16/hhs-budget-cut-trump/">seeking</a> to slash the CDC’s budget by over 40% after the health agency has received heavy <a href="https://www.nationalreview.com/corner/cdc-admission-of-dysfunction-misses-the-big-problems/">criticism</a> in recent years, especially for its handling of the COVID pandemic. During the outbreak of the disease and, at times, for years after, the CDC recommended actions that had little basis in scientific evidence.
For instance, the agency issued its six-feet separation guidance in March 2020 based on no discernible evidence, according to the House Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Pandemic, which issued a <a href="https://oversight.house.gov/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/2024.12.04-SSCP-FINAL-REPORT-ANS.pdf">final report</a> on the pandemic in December. Despite the lack of a scientific foundation, the guidance went unrevised until August 2022.
“There were no scientific trials or studies conducted before this policy was implemented, there appeared to be no pushback or internal discussion amongst the highest level of leadership, and more importantly there appears to be no acceptance of responsibility,” the 557-page report states. “That is an unacceptable answer from public health leadership. Decisions of this magnitude must have scientific backing that can be explained to the American public.”
The CDC’s guidance on mask-wearing and school closures was also compromised, according to the House report.
The CDC presented 15 studies on mask-wearing that it said support its guidance to require masks in public spaces, including on public transit and in schools. Each study was significantly flawed, however, and none of them were randomized controlled trials, considered the “gold standard” of such evidence.
“The trajectories of the rate of COVID-19 infections for states with mask mandates and states without is virtually identical,” the House report notes. “It is apparent that the CDC and the Biden Administration cherry-picked observational data to fit their narrative that masks are fully effective.”
The report notes that CDC “caused quantifiable harm” in its recommendation for universal masking inside primary schools. The recommendation remained in place for nearly two years, from April 2020 to late February 2022, with a brief break from May to July 2021.
The CDC’s choice to recommend universal masking was more onerous than the World Health Organization’s guidance. The WHO declined to recommend masking for children ages five and under, and said children ages six to 11 should not routinely wear masks because of “potential adverse impact to psychosocial and learning development,” according to the House report.
Isolation and forced masking appears to have <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2024/07/01/upshot/pandemic-children-school-performance.html">slowed</a> development for many children.
“Ignoring the science and facts of COVID-19 and the harms of masking young children was profoundly immoral on behalf of the leadership of the country’s public health officials. The future consequences of these types of draconian policies are not yet known, but public health leaders in the future should remember that all policy must be decided in a balanced manner,” the report notes.

Susan Monarez

Senate Confirms Trump’s Pick To Head CDC As Agency Battles Criticism Over Pandemic Response

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